“Bad choice, good choice always come back—like ghosts.” Avvy Go’s mother’s words haunt her. Avvy Go, a student at Oak Ridge High School, lives in a community of immigrants across a railway bridge separating her from the older, richer part of town. Her parents run a Chinese take-out restaurant at the food court, where Avvy works, but she wants to fit in at school, to cross that bridge separating the two communities and cultures. She’s tried the disappearing act, keeping to herself—trying to fit in by not being seen—but realizes that “if you act like a nobody, that’s what people see. No body.” But to fit in, she makes a series of bad choices—stealing, lying and befriending her sister’s enemy. A good girl with a powerful conscience, Avvy consults “The Oracle” in her school newspaper, who advises her to face up to her mistakes. Though Avvy’s first-person voice is didactic, her story ends realistically, with no simple solutions—just a determination to get on with her life, as complicated as it may be. Lee’s prose in this high-interest/low–reading level novel for teens is simple, adorned with an occasional glittering phrase: Avvy’s brother, in his new, too-big white karate outfit, “drooped like an ice cream melting on a stick.” A brisk tale with an important message. (Fiction. 10-15)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55277-538-7
Page Count: 152
Publisher: James Lorimer
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
An intimate novel that beautifully confronts grief and loss.
It’s 1983, and 13-year-old Indian American Reha feels caught between two worlds.
Monday through Friday, she goes to a school where she stands out for not being White but where she has a weekday best friend, Rachel, and does English projects with potential crush Pete. On the weekends, she’s with her other best friend, Sunita (Sunny for short), at gatherings hosted by her Indian community. Reha feels frustrated that her parents refuse to acknowledge her Americanness and insist on raising her with Indian values and habits. Then, on the night of the middle school dance, her mother is admitted to the hospital, and Reha’s world is split in two again: this time, between hospital and home. Suddenly she must learn not just how to be both Indian and American, but also how to live with her mother’s leukemia diagnosis. The sections dealing with Reha’s immigrant identity rely on oft-told themes about the overprotectiveness of immigrant parents and lack the nuance found in later pages. Reha’s story of her evolving relationships with her parents, however, feels layered and real, and the scenes in which Reha must grapple with the possible loss of a parent are beautifully and sensitively rendered. The sophistication of the text makes it a valuable and thought-provoking read even for those older than the protagonist.
An intimate novel that beautifully confronts grief and loss. (Verse novel. 11-15)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-304742-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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